Kalmykia finishes erecting first wind power plant in the South of Russia

The Priyutnenskiy District of Kalmykia, 15 kilometres off the capital Elista, is finalizing the installation of wind power generators of the first wind power plant (WPP) in the South of Russia. By 2010, they plan to commission the Republic's wind power yard consisting of 126 wind-driven generators for the aggregate power capacity of 150 megawatts.

Total investments into the Kalmyk WPP made 266.1 million euros. Of them, 235 million euros are the borrowed funds allocated by the Czech Export Bank to the Falkon Capital a.s. Company on the project, 15.47 million euros are the funds provided from the Russian federal budget on creating the engineering infrastructure, and 15.63 million euros come from the investor's own assets.

The construction of the WPP in the Priyutnenskiy District of Kalmykia will be made in three phases, 50 megawatts each. The payback period of the first stage makes 10 years, and of the subsequent 100 megawatts - no more than 10 years due to the expected advancing growth of electricity tariffs.

The average annual wind speed in the area of the first Kalmyk WPP is about 7.5 meters per second. It is one of the highest parameters in the south of Russia.

Meanwhile, the Priyutnenskiy site is just one of several sites in Kalmykia, where wind power can be efficiently generated. Thus, according to German experts, who studied in 2007 the territory of Kalmykia from the viewpoint of potential use of wind-driven generators, the Republic has at least 5-6 sites fit by their average annual wind speed for efficient use of wind power plants.